Jonathan Durham

Brief Musical Background

I’ve been studying music since I was five years old. Starting with basic scales and traditional melodies. When I was in grade school, I would listen to rock music and some electronic music. During that time I started studying classical music, mainly Bartok, some Beethoven and Mozart and learning theory.

My uncle was the first person to turn me onto Jazz. He had introduced me to Keith Jarrett, Weather Report, Chick Corea, and I was very much into those new sounds. As I continued my studies I found a teacher who taught me Jazz. He and I transcribed solos, learned Jazz harmony and improvisation. It was free.

In high school I had heard of Berklee College of Music and was interested in their 5-week program. I attended the 5-week program the summer of 2010. When in Boston, I was playing mainly New Age piano music and was only, really, listening to jazz, playing basic changes, not too much soloing. I met several professors at Berklee that gave me direction with my music and turned me onto some new Jazz artists. After 5 week, I studied Keith Jarrett’s music extensively for two more years and applied to Berklee for college. My audition piece was Koln Concert Part 2a, the piece in which I got accepted into Berklee. Recently I’ve been studying all kinds of music, mainly Jazz, Bluegrass, Singer Songwriter and Alternative Rock music.